The present invention concerns a one-piece auditory ossicle prosthesis consisting of a plate and of a shaft attached to it.
Such prostheses are necessary for reconstructing the complete auditory ossicular chain and thus to improve hearing if the complete auditory ossicular chain is fully or partially destroyed by chronic inflammations of the middle ear or by other injuries. Since there are, in general, no two identical cases in which a curative and hearing-improving operation on the middle ear (tympanoplasty) is necessary, it is necessary to have the possibility to adjust the needed implant to the actual individual conditions.
The implants used hitherto consist of different plastics, e.g., silicones. Implants made of porous plastics are also in use already. They always consist of a round plate and a shaft attached centrally to one side of the plate, with the axis of the said shaft being perpendicular to the plane of the plate.
These implants have the disadvantage that they cannot be processed adequately intraoperatively, because such soft plastics spring back strongly during grinding or cutting. Moreover, such plastics have only a limited compatibility with the body, i.e., some foreign-body-induced giant cells are found usually on their interface with the bony tissue and extrusion of the plastic implant may occur.